The IUCN Red List for 2007 was published in early September with the leader: Extinction Crisis Escalates. There are now 41,415 species on the IUCN Red List and 16,306 of them are threatened with extinction, up from 16,118 last year. The total number of extinct species has reached 785 and a further 65 are only found in captivity or in cultivation. These include human’s close relatives and other mammals, eg the western lowland gorilla, which moves from the Endangered to the Critically Endangered category.
Our human footprint is out of control. Estimates vary greatly, but current extinction rates are at least 100-1,000 times higher than natural background rates. We must control our consumption of the biosphere.
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